Wrestling Observer Flashbacks 1996 — page 2

And NOW the main event!  Hog Wild 96 and the introduction of the Observer Hall of Fame awaits!

This one took me a little bit longer to write than last night’s quickie, obviously.

Wrestling Observer Flashback – 08.19.96

OK, after yesterday’s super-abbreviated edition (well the one I wrote at least, Dave was still 100,000 words into it) we’re back with a full double issue this time to recap all the stateside news!

Wrestling Observer Flashback – 08.14.96

Here’s a shocking story to start this week’s issue:  Dave is a really big fan of New Japan Pro Wrestling.  I know, I know, what a bombshell.

– Dave proclaims that no promotion is any hotter here in 1996, with more mainstream popularity, than NJPW is.  The G-1 alone sold 55,000 tickets and drew $3 million in ticket sales (converted to metric, that’s approximately one third of a Wrestlemania today).  In fact, Dave declares that New Japan is the very model of what a modern pro wrestling promotion should be!

– At this point Dave puts over the brilliance of Antonio Inoki and goes into a detailed history of his career, interspersed with the detailed results of the combined G-1 and J-Crown shows, which I will spare you.

– Meanwhile, New Japan held the historic J Crown tournament, with 8 champions competing to unify all the titles into one match with 8 belts at stake.  (And you thought Roman Reigns v. Brock Lesnar was a big deal!)  For those keeping score, the belts at stake were the following:  IWGP Junior Heavyweight, NWA Welterweight, WAR International Junior, WWF Light Heavyweight, NWA Junior heavyweight, Great Britain Junior Heavyweight, WWA Junior Light Heavyweight and UWA Light Heavyweight.  Notable is that half of those “titles” don’t actually exist or at least haven’t been active in decades, but it’s still pretty cool.

– Skipping ahead to the point, Ultimo Dragon of course beat Great Sasuke to unify the 8 belts and win the J-Crown.

– And that’s literally the entire issue this time around aside from quick mentions that 1-2-3 Kid is debuting for WCW soon and Gary Wolfe has a broken neck, so consider this a a bonus appetizer tonight since it only took me 10 minutes to write, and we’ll move onto the next week’s proper double issue tomorrow with Dave back from Japan and reporting news again.

Wrestling Observer Flashback – 08.05.96

(I’m putting this one in the can a few days earlier than publication so if there’s any pop culture references that age badly, blame me.)

An industry shaking death in this issue, but first Dave does some business analysis.

Wrestling Observer Flashback – 07.29.96

And we’re back into these again!

Time to get political with an INTERNATIONAL INCIDENT.

Well not really but you get where I’m going with this.

Wrestling Observer Flashback – 07.22.96

‘Twas the day before Christmas, and all through the blog…something something that rhymes with flashback. Actually I guess “hack” rhymes with that.

Wrestling Observer Flashback – 07.15.96

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…

Wrestling Observer Flashback – 07.08.96

Day off from work today, so I’ve got some time to craft another Flashback! Your Spotify soundtrack for this one is Queensryche’s “Operation Mindcrime”, an album that it took me many years to get into, which is weird because I was a big fan of “Empire”.  But goddamn is “Eyes of a Stranger” a great song.

So look, the world may be a crazy place, but at least we can all rest easy knowing that, much like his relationship with Bret Hart, things will always be good between Vince McMahon and the Ultimate Warrior. Now let’s just open up the Observer and see what the top story this week is…

Wrestling Observer Flashback – 07.01.96

I like how even the editors of the Observer site are scoring off Dave with the headline on this one.

Wrestling Observer Flashback – 06.24.96

(Dangit, I was 90% done this one and realized that I missed 6.17.96. Oh well, this one has the stuff everyone wants to get to anyway.)

Heard that WCW put on a pretty good PPV this week.

But first, another death…

Wrestling Observer Flashback – 06.10.96

OK, let’s get back into these again.

Wrestling Observer Flashback – 06.03.96

OH BABY. Some stuff is going down this week!

Wrestling Observer Flashback – 05.27.96

Time for a CURTAIN CALL, and a UFC main event that was famous for the wrong reasons.

Wrestling Observer Flashback – 05.20.96

Yeah I know everyone hates NWA Powerrr, so let’s FLASHBACK instead.

Wrestling Observer Flashback – 05.13.96

Home with a sick kid and hiding out from the heat this morning, so let’s do a Flashback while I’ve got some time.

Wrestling Observer Flashback – 05.06.96

It’s a big week in Tokyo! Plus the WWF is in YOUR house again!

Wrestling Observer Flashback – 04.29.96

Bad days ahead for Brian Pillman.

Wrestling Observer Flashback – 04.22.96

Well this should do better than NWA Powerrr at least.

Wrestling Observer Flashback – 04.15.96

And now, Dave would like to talk about PPV.

Wrestling Observer Flashback – 04.08.96

Whoa oh, whoa oh, it’s Wrestlemania.

Wrestling Observer Flashback – 04.02.96

Time for Uncensored. Hope your medical insurance is paid up because this one is gonna hurt.